Saying it would be “inappropriate” to perform at a comedic event so soon after Pope John Paul II’s death, Mayor Bloomberg canceled his part in the annual Inner Circle journalists’ dinner last night.

Excluding a year during Mayor Robert Wagner’s tenure when the entire show was canceled due to the death of his wife, yesterday was the first time in recent memory a mayor didn’t give a rebuttal to reporters’ lampooning of the city’s chief executive.

After attending an evening Mass held by Edward Cardinal Egan at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Bloomberg turned up the Inner Circle show and made a brief speech outlining his reasons for not perfoming.